Review: Maplecroft (The Borden Dispatches #1) by Cherie Priest

Title: Maplecroft (The Borden Dispatches #1)

Author: Cherie Priest

Published by: ROC

Released: September 2014

Source: Library

Summary:

Lizzie Borden took an axe

Gave her mother 40 whacks

And when she saw what she had done

Gave her father 41

After being acquitted of the crime of murdering her parents, Lizzie and her sister have moved to a new home named Maplecroft. They haven't left the town of Fall River though. Something lurks in Fall River, infecting and killing the town people. The only one who can save them is Lizzie Borden.

With her axe, she will kill the creatures that go bump in the night, just like she killed the monsters that infected her parents.

My Thoughts: This book and I had a rocky relationship. It started off a little slow, the middle had me really intrigued, and by the end, I was just begging for it to finish.

It has an interesting premise. Sometimes I'm a little iffy on alternate histories, especially when it features an actual historic figure as the main character. Lizzie Borden is an infamous character in history. Many people think she got away with murdering her parents. I'm not sure whether she did it or not, but I am suspicious of her.

So this novel turns Lizzie from a bad guy to a possibly good guy. The novel also took liberties with Nance O'Neil, who was a Hollywood actress at the time. She was friends with Lizzie Borden, but there is no real evidence that they were ever lovers. In real life, Nance O'Neil got married and lived to a ripe old age. Sometimes when you make stuff up about history, it can get people to believe things that never really happened. This might not matter to some people, but it is a thing that I always take notice of.

I'm not sure how I feel about how this novel was formatted. It is all told through diary entries and letters. Through the beginning and middle, I was involved in the way it was told, but the nearer I got to the end, the more frustrated I got. The characters just had this ability to ramble on and on in their entries, and had a lot of trouble in getting to the point.

The reveal of the monster/problem was also something I was mixed on. It took so long to get to the action and reveal.

My main problem with this book was that it was just too long and drawn out. Things could have been concluded much more quickly, and I would have been happier for it. It was just too long, and it came to a point where I was just begging for it to end.

So my feelings are mixed. I liked the concept and idea, but my problem was with the way it was told. Oh, and I also got really annoyed of Nance O'Neil's character. I was on Emma's side, Nance needed to go home. She was nosy, jealous, and drove a wedge between the sisters. Nance was just an annoyance. I might read the sequel.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3/5

Too Long and Drawn Out.